During our recent visit to Ft. Davis, Texas we went to the McDonald Observatory. Situated atop a mountain about thirty minutes outside of town, the observatory is home to four very large telescopes for use by astronomers and several more smaller scopes for use by visitors and students. We made our first visit on Tuesday night to attend a "Star Party."
At a Star Party, you learn about constellations and their stories and also about astronomical navigation while in an outdoor amphitheater after dark. At the beginning of the program we were treated to a fly-over by the International Space Station. After the program, we looked through five different telescopes aimed at a variety of heavenly bodies: the Orion Nebula, Jupiter, a twin star cluster, Andromeda Galaxy, and another cluster of cool stars.
The observatory was so great that we decided to go back for another visit, this time for a "Solar Tour." McDonald is also home to several solar telescopes, which as you may have guessed, are used for studying the Sun. Special filters have to be used to view the Sun and this time we were all seated indoors viewing the scene as it was relayed via computer to a movie screen. We were able to see the telescope spinning around to prepare for viewing. The Sun is more interesting to observe than you might think. Our educator demonstrated how large the Sun is compared to the Earth, as wide at the center as 109 Earths! He then showed us sun spots and solar prominences and explained how they form.
Because the sun is not solid, but gaseous, it's equatorial area does not rotate at the same speed as the poles. This causes the magnetic field to warp and twist and collapse in places. Sun spots form and near these are prominences. A prominence is an arc of gas that extends out into space for up to 20,000 miles then after a few hours or days, collapses on itself. The picture shows our educator holding up a golf ball next to our view of the prominence to show the size of the Earth in comparison.
Because the sun is not solid, but gaseous, it's equatorial area does not rotate at the same speed as the poles. This causes the magnetic field to warp and twist and collapse in places. Sun spots form and near these are prominences. A prominence is an arc of gas that extends out into space for up to 20,000 miles then after a few hours or days, collapses on itself. The picture shows our educator holding up a golf ball next to our view of the prominence to show the size of the Earth in comparison.
One of the most important things we learned was how badly light pollution is getting to be for most of the country. Approximately two-thirds of the US population cannot see the Milky Way at night. Light pollution doesn't just spoil our stargazing abilities, it wastes money, harms the environment and is detrimental to our health. Since too many lights are poorly aimed they send light upward instead of downward where it's needed. This means almost 30 million barrels of oil and eight million tons of coal are wasted each year. This releases more than 14 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which adds other pollution issues. What's more, the extra lighting at night is thought to interfere with our natural sleep patterns which is not good for our general health. (source: National Park Service visitor guide)
Favorite part of the Observatory?
"Hearing about the lore of the different constellations." -Joel
"Learning about the Sun through pictures and video." -Kristin
"Looking through the telescope at Jupiter." -Emily
Most interesting thing(s) you learned?
"Hearing that the constellations aren't supposed to be an exact picture of what they are but rather the story behind it. " - Joel
"How big the sun is compared to Earth." - Kristin
"All the stories after the constellations." - Emily
Favorite thing you saw through the telescopes?
"The star cluster whose name we can't remember." - Joel
"The Orion Nebula." - Kristin
"Jupiter." - Emily
If you would like to learn more about the McDonald Observatory, the Dark Skies Initiative, or astronomy in general, visit some of the websites below.
McDonald Observatory & Department of Astronomy
mcdonaldobservatory.org
Stardate Online - McDonald Observatory Education Site
stardate.org
Main NASA site
nasa.gov
Satellite Visibility
heavens-above.com
Solar Activity and its effect on Earth
spaceweather.com
International Dark Sky Association
darksky.org
"Hearing about the lore of the different constellations." -Joel
"Learning about the Sun through pictures and video." -Kristin
"Looking through the telescope at Jupiter." -Emily
Most interesting thing(s) you learned?
"Hearing that the constellations aren't supposed to be an exact picture of what they are but rather the story behind it. " - Joel
"How big the sun is compared to Earth." - Kristin
"All the stories after the constellations." - Emily
Favorite thing you saw through the telescopes?
"The star cluster whose name we can't remember." - Joel
"The Orion Nebula." - Kristin
"Jupiter." - Emily
If you would like to learn more about the McDonald Observatory, the Dark Skies Initiative, or astronomy in general, visit some of the websites below.
McDonald Observatory & Department of Astronomy
mcdonaldobservatory.org
Stardate Online - McDonald Observatory Education Site
stardate.org
Main NASA site
nasa.gov
Satellite Visibility
heavens-above.com
Solar Activity and its effect on Earth
spaceweather.com
International Dark Sky Association
darksky.org